Why You Should Take More Time to Produce Less Content

Scaling back on the sheer volume of content you're producing may actually drive more people to your site in the end.

For anyone working in digital marketing or online media, there's a debate as old as the internet itself: content quality vs. quantity. With only a few exceptions, there's a consensus in both industries that quality should always come before quantity.

Yet, when you log on to Facebook or browse your Twitter timeline, there's a massive amount of content being created every minute of every day. For industries that claim to be all about quality, there's quite a bit of quantity going on.

Everything Sounds Good In Theory

That's because in theory, quality sounds great. Taking more time to produce better content for your audience is something every marketer or content editor wants to say. The problem is, well, it takes more time. And we can use that time to create more content.

To most business and site publishers, taking more time to produce fewer pieces of content means two things:

You're Paying More for Less

You Could Be Producing More

That's the unfortunate reality of the current state of digital marketing and online media. But here's the biggest, not-so-secret reason, that you should be putting more emphasis on content quality over quantity:

Results.

Not exactly revolutionary thinking, but something that isn't said in plain English enough.

Secrets That the Experts Won't Tell You

Results is the simple, not-so-secret reason to concentrate more of your efforts on producing quality content than pushing out more and more content. But what the experts won't tell you is that just because you don't hit it big with the first or fiftieth piece of content doesn't mean your work isn't good enough, and it certainly doesn't mean you should abandon quality over quantity as a strategy.

Another secret is that once you've developed your audience, you can get away with producing more in less time than you previously did. That's because you've proven yourself to be an expert, or a great entertainer, and your audience simply wants more from you.

Results: Explained

We've established that results is the reason for content quality to be favored over quantity, but what does that really mean? It means that whatever metric you're using to quantify "results" should see improvement by putting more time into each piece of content you produce. Whether that's blog posts, SEO content, social media posts, or other forms of digital content, you will have more success if you're taking the time to better research and produce your content. (You still have to be consistent, though.)

This could mean turning a list of "3 Cool Christmas Gifts for the Family Dog" into "10 Cool Christmas Gifts for the Family Dog, or simply taking time to simply write longer descriptions and incorporate more images/video into the initial content.

By taking this extra time consistently, you'll find that your content will be shared more often, and that its longevity will increase. If your goal is to receive more followers, you'll achieve it. Want more traffic from Google? You'll get that too. All it takes is a little more elbow grease, and a little convincing your boss to let you scale back on the quantity.